We've covered the Hawks situation before, but The Falconer at Bird Watchers Anonymous fills in the up to date numbers including the expected salary cap increase and Toews $1.3m bonus for being named the MVP. Key point: "Now here is where it gets tricky. NHL clubs must make Qualifying Offers (QOs) to all RFAS to retain their rights, if they fail to qualify to do so the players become unrestricted free agents. The qualifying offers must at least match last season's salary, if a player made less than $1 million then the qualifying offer must include a minimum raise (either 5% or 10%). Now here's the key part: Right now the Blackhawks are so hard up against the cap that they probably can't even deliver their qualifying offers to their RFA players. The deadline for making those qualifying offers is fast approaching which means that Chicago will be almost certainly have to move one of their $3 million cap players in the next few days." So anyone who was eying Ladd, Skille, Eager, Hjalmarsson or Niemi has greater reason to be optimistic about landing them.